Conference Speakers

Mr. Daniel L. Glaser

Financial Intelligence and Principal, Financial Integrity Network - Former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Terrorism

Mr. Daniel L. Glaser

Financial Intelligence and Principal, Financial Integrity Network - Former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Terrorism

Speaker Bio

Daniel L. Glaser is a Principal with the Financial Integrity Network and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Mr. Glaser previously served as Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence from May 2011 through January 2017. As Assistant Secretary, Mr. Glaser was responsible for helping to formulate and coordinate counter-terrorist financing and anti-money laundering policies and strategies for the Department.

Mr. Glaser served previously as Treasury’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes from November 2004 to May 2011. He was responsible for developing and coordinating policies to protect the U.S. and international financial systems from abuse related to money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Glaser also served as the Head of the U.S. Delegation to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Prior to that position, Mr. Glaser served as the first Director of the Treasury Department’s Executive Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and as Senior Counsel for Financial Crimes in the Office of the General Counsel. He also served as an attorney for the U.S. Secret Service.

Mr. Glaser holds a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School and a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan.

Mr. Conrad Prince

UK Cyber Ambassador

Mr. Conrad Prince

UK Cyber Ambassador

Speaker Bio

Conrad Prince is the UK Cyber Ambassador, based in the Defence and Security Organisation. In this role he works with overseas Governments on the development of cyber security capability, and within the UK as a senior advocate for the Government´s agenda to develop a strong and innovative cyber security sector.

HE Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari

Minister of Trade & Commerce

HE Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari

Minister of Trade & Commerce

Speaker Bio

Mr. Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari became Group Chief Executive Officer at Qatar National Bank in July 2013. Mr. Al Kuwari has extensive banking experience having joined QNB in 1988. Prior to joining QNB, Mr. Al Kuwari was working for Qatar Petroleum for 4 years.

Prior to being appointed as Group CEO, Mr. Al Kuwari was the Executive General Manager & Group Chief Business Officer, a post he held for over six years. He was responsible for all business lines of QNB and instrumental for QNB becomes No. I Bank in Middle East & North Africa.

Mr. Al-Kuwari is member of several boards and is the Chairman of QNB Capital (the investment banking advisory arm of QNB Group) and is the Chairman of QNB Indonesia, a subsidiary in Indonesia. He is Vice Chairman of CBI in the UAE. He is the Chairman of MasterCard Advisory Board for the Middle East and Africa and board member at Milaha and vice chairman of Qatar Exchange and board member of QFBA.

Mr. Al-Kuwari has a Master of Science in Management Information System from the University of Seattle Pacific (1987) and a Bachelor in Math and Computer Science from Eastern Washington University (1984). Mr. Al-Kuwari has also attended a number of Executive Programs at Wharton School of Business, London Business School, Cambridge University and Duke University.

Mr. Jerome Beaumont

Mr. Jerome Beaumont

Speaker Bio

Jerome Beaumont is the current Executive Secretary of the Egmont Group, an international organization in charge of the exchange of information relating to the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Egmont Group currently comprises 156 Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) around the world.
Before joining the Egmont group, Jérôme Beaumont was the representative of the international division of the French FIU TRACFIN.
Jerome Beaumont studied political science and Mandarin. He is also a graduate of the military school of Saint-Cyr.

Dr. R.Seetharaman

Group Chief Executive Officer - Doha Bank

Dr. R.Seetharaman

Group Chief Executive Officer - Doha Bank

Speaker Bio

Dr. R. Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank, is a recipient of multiple doctorates from leading universities in the world, including a PhD in Global Governance by European University and PhD in Green Banking and Sustainability from Sri Sri University.

In 2017, he was recognized and conferred by the Government of India with the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award, the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians by the Government of India. Dr. R. Seetharaman was honoured with the “Green Economy Visionary Award” in 2016 by Union of Arab Banks for his contribution in promoting Green economies. Recently, he was honoured with “Global Excellence Award in Renewable energy” as well. He was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by The Banker Middle East to honour his contribution to the industry and his support for the environment and the business. He has also received “Life time Achievement Award” from the Institute of Directors. Being a leading top-tier Bank CEO, he has transformed Doha Bank as one of the best performing Banks in the Middle East region. He has been named "Best CEO in Middle East" Four times in the last 12 years.

He is a Chartered Accountant and holds certificate in IT systems and Corporate Management, whilst being a Gold medallist in his graduation Bachelor of Commerce. He is a prominent personality in the banking industry throughout the Middle East and being a high profile economist, he is invited on a regular basis by international media such as BBC, CNN, FOX, CNBC, Sky News, ABC and Bloomberg to share his views.

Major General Arthur Denaro

Former UK Defence Special Advisor (Middle East)

Major General Arthur Denaro

Former UK Defence Special Advisor (Middle East)

Speaker Bio

During his distinguished career, Major General Arthur Denaro's appointments have included Commandant at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Middle East adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and Chief of Staff of the UN Protection Forces during the Balkans conflict. Among his recent appointments, Major General Denaro was Trustee of the Prince's Trust and adviser to the courts of the Emir of Qatar. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Herefordshire and an Extra Equerry to HRH the Prince of Wales.

Major General Arthur Denaro CBE speaks with experience and great insight on how to motivate, inspire and lead others in testing times.

Major General Denaro's distinguished career began when he was commissioned into the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars; his life as a young officer included being involved with clandestine operations worldwide with UK Special Forces.

Prestigious appointments during his career included commanding his Regiment in the War to Liberate Kuwait, and becoming Chief of Staff of 44,000 troops during the Balkans conflict. The UN Protection Forces in the Balkans were drawn from no less than 31 different nations and they had to operate in a particularly complex and often cruel environment. Major General Denaro's role included ensuring international relations were maintained despite fraught and often-dangerous events, including the vital military link between Koffi Annan, who was then UN Special Adviser to the Balkans, and the military on the ground.

He was awarded the OBE in the Gulf War Honours List and the CBE in 1995 following the Balkans Conflict. Other appointments of note during his career have included Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of British Forces Cyprus.

Between 1997-2000, Major General Denaro was Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where British and overseas graduates were being trained as the future leaders of their 'beloved soldiers'. He was also the Middle East adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff for six years until 2002.

Dr. Farnam Jahanian

President - Carnegie Mellon University - USA

Dr. Farnam Jahanian

President - Carnegie Mellon University - USA

Speaker Bio

Farnam Jahanian was appointed interim president of Carnegie Mellon University, USA by its Board of Trustees, effective July 1, 2017. While serving as the university’s provost and chief academic officer beginning in 2015, Jahanian had broad responsibility for leading CMU's schools, colleges, institutes and campuses and was instrumental in long-range institutional and academic planning and implementation. The office of vice provost for research also reported to Jahanian, where he fostered excellence in research, scholarship and creative activities across the entire campus. He brings to CMU extensive leadership and administrative expertise, not only in supporting and nurturing foundational research within and across disciplines, but also in translating research into technologies and practices that benefit society.

Jahanian holds faculty appointments in the School of Computer Science (Computer Science), the College of Engineering (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Heinz College (Information Systems and Management) at Carnegie Mellon University. To access his faculty page, please visit http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~farnam/.

Prior to CMU, Jahanian led the National Science Foundation Directorate for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) from 2011 to 2014. With the budget of over $900 million, he was responsible for directing CISE programs and initiatives that support advances in research and cyber infrastructure, foster broad interdisciplinary collaborations, and contribute to the development of a computing and information technology workforce with skills essential to success in the increasingly competitive global market. During his tenure at NSF, the CISE Directorate led several administration initiatives with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, including the National Robotics Initiative, the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative and US Ignite. He also served as co-chair of the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology, providing coordination of R&D activities of 17 government agencies.

Jahanian was on the faculty at the University of Michigan from 1993 to 2014, where he held the Edward S. Davidson Collegiate Professorship in the College of Engineering, and served as Chair for Computer Science and Engineering from 2007 to 2011 and the Director of the Software Systems Laboratory from 1997 to 2000. He cofounded Arbor Networks in 2001 and served as its President and Chief Scientist until 2004. He remained as Chairman of Arbor Networks until its acquisition in 2010. Earlier in his career, he held research and management positions at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Jahanian’s research interests span distributed computing, network security and network protocols and architectures. His research has been sponsored by NSF, DHS, DARPA, NSA, ONR and numerous companies including Cisco, Intel, Google, Boeing, VeriSign, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

While at the University of Michigan, Jahanian led several large-scale research projects that studied the growth and scalability of the Internet infrastructure, which ultimately transformed how cyber threats are addressed by Internet Service Providers. In the late 1990s, his research team, including former students, Craig Labovitz and G. Robert Malan, demonstrated fundamental limitations in the core routing architecture of the Internet by uncovering the fragility of the underlying routing infrastructure. The group’s seminal work on Internet routing stability and convergence has been highly influential within both the network research community and the Internet operations community. It served as a catalyst for significant changes in commercial Internet routing software implementation and impacted routing policies employed by Internet Service Providers worldwide. The centrepiece of this work was recognized with an ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award in 2008. Furthermore, it has inspired significant new endeavors by numerous networking researchers over the last decade.

Anticipating the emergence of increasingly complex, widely distributed cyber-attacks on IP-based networks, long before terms such as “distributed denial of service” and “zero-day worms” entered the mainstream, Jahanian led an effort to develop new techniques that combine network topology information and traffic flow statistics to detect, backtrack and filter DDoS attacks.

Working from a granular understanding of normal network traffic flows, the anomaly detection technique invented by Jahanian’s research team rapidly uncovers distributed attacks, closing a costly gap between the detection of a widely distributed attack and its resolution. This approach, without requiring any changes to the existing Internet routing infrastructure, has transformed how network security is addressed by today’s Internet Service Providers.

The impact of Jahanian’s contributions to Internet stability and security extends beyond the research community and into industry, as is evident in the successful commercialization of his research through Arbor Networks (www.arbor.net), which Jahanian co-founded with former UM graduate student G. Robert Malan in 2000. Over a 10-year period, Jahanian led the research, co-founded the company, launched its flagship products, and upon his return to the University of Michigan, served as Chief Scientist and Chairman of Arbor Networks setting the strategic direction until its acquisition in 2010. During a three-year leave from the University of Michigan, he led the management team of the company and raised over $33 million in two rounds of funding from venture capital firms and strategic investors.

At Arbor Networks, Jahanian and his team developed highly scalable, service provider-class solutions for protecting networks against distributed denial of service attacks, zero-day network threats and routing exploits.
These Internet security solutions have been widely implemented by hundreds of Internet Service Providers, wireless carriers, cloud service providers and numerous mission-critical networks in leading financial, retail, healthcare and government organizations in 107 countries around the globe, including AT&T, Verizon, British Telecom, Comcast, NTT, Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Internet2, Yahoo and Cisco. In 2010, 70 percent of Internet backbone transit traffic was being protected by their technology. Over the last decade, Arbor Networks’s technology has been utilized by the world’s leading companies to measure, monitor and defend networks against attack, including 90% of the world's Tier 1 service providers, 8 of the 10 largest cloud service providers, 9 of the 10 largest managed security service providers, 3 of the 5 largest social media networks, 5 of the 6 largest U.S. cable broadband providers, and 4 of the top 6 U.S. banks based on assets under management. In addition, more than 50 global carriers and cloud service providers offer managed security services to their enterprise customers based on Arbor Networks products. The technology has also been used to successfully protect Web properties for five Olympic Games and two World Cups.

The author of over 100 published research papers, Jahanian has also served on dozens of national advisory boards and panels. He serves as chair of the National Research Council’s Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) and is a board member of the Computing Research Association (CRA), the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority (BFTDA) and the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT). Jahanian has testified before Congress on a broad range of topics, including cybersecurity, next generation computing and “big data” analytics. He has been an active advocate for how basic research can be uniquely central to an innovation ecosystem that drives global competitiveness and addresses national priorities, working with entrepreneurs and lecturing on the topic.

He has received numerous awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1995),
University of Michigan College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (1998), Amoco Teaching Award (2000), DARPA Innovation Award (2000), EECS Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award (2005), the State of Michigan Governor’s University Award for Commercialization Excellence (2005) and the ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award (2008). He was named “Distinguished University Innovator” at the University of Michigan (2009) and “Entrepreneur of the Year” by New Enterprise Forum (2010). In 2015, he received the Computing Research Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

Jahanian holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Bin Nasser Al-Thani

Chief Business Officer - Ooredoo

Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Bin Nasser Al-Thani

Chief Business Officer - Ooredoo

Speaker Bio

Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad bin Nasser Al-Thani joined Ooredoo in 2009 and carries with him over 15 years of experience in telecommunications operations and local government entities. In his current role, as Chief Business Officer he is Responsible for end to end profit and loss accountability for Ooredoo Qatar’s B2B portfolio including Connectivity, ICT and Mega Projects as well as the Qatar Data Centre. His role mainly focuses on developing and implementing the Business BU Strategy and Business Plans ensuring alignment with Corporate Strategy and Group Strategy. Providing strategic direction and leadership for Business BU and to the Strategy of Ooredoo as a whole. Driving growth strategy to expand Ooredoo’s presence in other B2B markets within the wider MENA region.

Sheikh Nasser has created value across multiple business sectors - he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Al-Siliya Sports Club for 10 years, and is currently a board member of Masraf Al Rayyan Bank, Ooredoo Kuwait, Asiacell and Arab Sat. Sheikh Nasser also represents Ooredoo at the United Nations Forum for Business and Human Rights in Geneva.Sheikh Nasser has an MBA from the University of Wales and ranked 1st in Qatar for his General Secondary Education. Sheikh Nasser dedicatedly works with a range of charities across Qatar and the region.

Mr. Syed Mehdi Hassan

Lead Financial Sector Specialist - World Bank

Mr. Syed Mehdi Hassan

Lead Financial Sector Specialist - World Bank

Speaker Bio

Syed Mehdi Hassan joined the World Bank in January 2016 as a Lead Financial Sector Specialist in the Finance and Markets Global Practice where his responsibilities include coverage for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and countries in the MASHREQ region (Iraq, Iran, Syria and West Bank). Mr. Hassan joined the World Bank from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) where he was working as an Advisor to senior management since June 2007. During his more than 8 years at SAMA, Mr. Hassan had a policy as well as hands on supervisory role. Additionally, Mr. Hassan was actively involved with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) where he represented the Governor at the Standing Committee for Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation (SRC) since its inception in 2009, and actively participated and contributed to the extensive global financial reforms that have been delivered by the FSB including the G-SIBs and G-SIIs identification and higher loss absorbency requirements, Key Attributes of Resolution Regimes, OTC Derivative Reforms, Shadow Banking, TLAC and De-Risking among few noteworthy initiatives. Mr. Hassan is also a hands on Supervisor and has developed and helped implement a number of leading edge, consumer friendly regulations and policies in Saudi Arabia. Previously Mr. Hassan worked for the Canadian Export Credit Agency (EDC) as a Financial Services Manager providing Export Credit and Political Risk Insurance products to corporate and sovereign buyers of Canadian goods and services. Mr. Hassan started his career in 1984 as a commercial banker working for Emirates NBD and Standard Chartered Bank in South Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa in increasing senior roles. Mr. Hassan holds an MBA degree from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Mr. Phil Warren

Deputy Chief Information Security Officer - Bank of England

Mr. Phil Warren

Deputy Chief Information Security Officer - Bank of England

Speaker Bio

Phil Warren is the Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at the Bank of England. Phil deputizes for and runs many of the operations on behalf of the CISO against the broad portfolio of the Bank’s cyber mission: intelligence, investigations, policy, governance, risk, compliance, education and innovation. Phil is currently involved in a number of specific pieces of work aimed at developing cyber maturity in the Bank and sector: including the Bank’s internal enterprise-wide mitigation strategy, the renewal of RTGS and Project STRIDER, which aims to increase collaboration across the sector for cyber incident response. Phil is also part of the Bank’s privacy work – supporting the implementation of changes to meet GDPR compliance in May 2018. Prior to joining the Bank in 2014, Phil spent 10 years in government supporting national security requirements including cyber defence.

Mr. Alain Desausoi

Deputy Chief Information Security Officer - SWIFT

Mr. Alain Desausoi

Deputy Chief Information Security Officer - SWIFT

Speaker Bio

He joined SWIFT in 1988 in the Customer product software development group as lead Architect of the Alliance Access product family. Following this Alain held a number of IT Strategy roles and became lead Architect of SWIFTNet. In 2003, Alain joined the Security group of SWIFT where he established and led the overall information security programme, including the SWIFT’s security risk management practices.

Prior to working at SWIFT, Alain worked as software engineer delivering software and hardware of autonomous systems like EFTPOS, industrial automation and digital telephony systems.

Alain is a civil engineer in electronics and computer science, graduating from l’Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Ms. Francesca Bosco

Program Officer - UNICRI

Ms. Francesca Bosco

Program Officer - UNICRI

Speaker Bio

Francesca Bosco is Program Officer at UNICRI, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute. She earned a law degree in International Law and joined UNICRI in 2006. She is responsible for cybercrime and cybersecurity related projects, both at the European and at international level. She has been researching and developing technical assistance and capacity building programs to counter the involvement of organized crime within the field of cybercrime, as well as examining the legal implications and future scenarios of terrorist use of the internet and cyberterrorism. Furthermore, she is researching and developing projects on the misuse of technology, encompassing current and future challenging areas such as fintech, supply chain security, big data, ICS/SCADA security and robotics. She has been participating as a speaker and trainer at various high level cybersecurity and technology related events. She is also involved in various other UNICRI programs related to preventing and countering violent extremism, violence against women, human trafficking, environmental crimes, counterfeiting, corruption. She is member of the Advisory Groups of the Europol EC3.

Eng. Khalid N. Sadiq Al-Hashmi

Assistant Undersecretary of Cyber Security - MOTC, Qatar

Eng. Khalid N. Sadiq Al-Hashmi

Assistant Undersecretary of Cyber Security - MOTC, Qatar

Speaker Bio

Khalid Al-Hashimi has more than 18 years of experience in the Information Technology field, with particular expertise in cyber security, information infrastructure and ICT systems planning. In his role as Under Secretary for Cyber Security-QCERT, Qatar's National Program that safeguards the country's information and communications systems. Khalid leads a team that works closely with government agencies, financial institutions, energy sector, businesses, and citizens to address cyber security risks, protect sensitive information, and ensure the safety of children on the Internet.

Khalid has been instrumental in the development of a national strategy for cyber security, focusing first on critical sector services within the country. Recognizing that cyber security is not confined to national boundaries, he has worked closely with many security teams worldwide to develop integrated response systems and a robust information network as well as participated in drafting Cyber Security related Laws.

Khalid played an imperative role to establish GCC CERT Committee and was appointed chairman for the 1st year; the committee addresses cyber security threats in the Gulf region. Further,

Prior to joining ictQATAR, Khalid worked as the IT Operation & Support/Security Executive Manager for the 2006 Asian Games in Doha where he was in charge of the overall planning and execution of IT operations for the event. Khalid was an active member of the Qatar Armed Forces and served as an IT Manager for the Armed Forces before being retiring at the rank of Lt. Colonel (Air/Eng.)

A Qatari citizen, Khalid holds a Master of Science in Software Engineering from the University of Michigan (Michigan, USA), a Bachelor of Computer Science from University of Ohio (Findlay, USA) in addition to domain certification in CISSP, CISM, and ITIL.

Mr. Maitham Al-Lawati

Mr. Maitham Al-Lawati

Speaker Bio

Maitham Al-Lawati is the General Manager of Risk, Compliance & Managed Security Services at Oman Data Park, he is part of the executive management team that joined to establish the first cloud & managed service provider in Oman. Prior to joining Oman Data Park he was heading the Information Security Department at one of the local leading banks, he has also served at Ernst & Young and various other organizations. Maitham holds a BSc degree in Information Systems from Sultan Qaboos University, he also boasts several professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CRISC, C|EH, ISO 27001 LI, CCNP:Security , ISC2 CCSP. Maitham has more than ten years of experience in cyber security and is a seasonal international speaker

Mr. Andy G Craig

CEO Vigilant Applications, Broadcast Journalist/News Anchor

Mr. Andy G Craig

CEO Vigilant Applications, Broadcast Journalist/News Anchor

Speaker Bio

Andy Craig has combined a successful career as a Broadcast Journalist and News Anchor for over thirty years with business interests spanning Cybersecurity, Healthcare and Media. In the UK, he has hosted thousands of hours of ‘live’ news, political debate and current affairs, working with all, the major networks - ITV, BBC, Channel 4 and Sky, twice winning Royal Television Society Awards.

As an entrepreneur he applied his experience and understanding of ‘live’ delivery to Retail Banking at a time of transition to on-line and pioneering data driven CRM. He consulted with NCR and his research and production company went on to work with the likes of Wells Fargo in the US, GAD in Germany and Barclaycard in the UK.

He currently heads up a Cybersecurity company specialising in User Behaviour Analytics, countering the insider threat for banks and major corporations. His truly unique WhatsApp and WeChat real-time auditing is particularly in demand by the trading banks seeking to comply with the rapidly approaching MiFID ll legislation.

Mr. Charles Nolan

VP-IT Strategy Governance Innovation - Qatar Airways

Mr. Charles Nolan

VP-IT Strategy Governance Innovation - Qatar Airways

Speaker Bio

Charles Nolan is a dynamic individual who specializes in transformation, change and consolidation across a wide range of industries in the Information Technology and Communications field. Charles is adaptable, entrepreneurial and fast acting on assignments delivered to get results. He specializes in execution and delivery within the organisation from Plan through Design, Build & Run. In touch with ever-changing modern technology, Charles can deliver results including the sought after areas of transformation, Operations, Consolidation, Analytics, IT Risk and Security, Cloud Computing and High Density computing. Bringing his international and cultural experience with global organisations, Charles can operate and interact across the globe, and achieve the optimal results within the respective cultural and national environments. Charles’ broad industry experience brings a hybrid vigour to his assignments, and he is a known leader in various industry forums, from Strategy, Governance and Innovation, to Cloud Computing, new Technologies and Education.

Dr. Alex Constantinidis

Chief Information Security Officer - QNB

Dr. Alex Constantinidis

Chief Information Security Officer - QNB

Speaker Bio

Dr Alex Constantinidis is the Chief Information Security Officer for QNB Group. He is an accomplished information risk and security professional with Banking and Big Four consultancy background. Alex has worked in various capacities across the three lines of defense focusing on protecting organizations from Cyber Security threats. Alex has a track record in security research and he been a presenter at International Information Security Conferences and hacker boot camp courses

Mr. Ebbe Benali Petersen

CEO of BitRater Group and Former Head of Section at the Danish Defence Intelligence Service

Mr. Ebbe Benali Petersen

CEO of BitRater Group and Former Head of Section at the Danish Defence Intelligence Service

Speaker Bio

Ebbe has made a highly successful career in combating cyber-crime, which qualifies him to provide real-time, contextual, and predictive threat intelligence about all aspects of current and future threats. His address can span the whole spectrum of potential cyber-attack or focus on any element that is necessary to implement an in-depth defence against the cyber-criminals of today and tomorrow

Mr. Mitch Scherr

CEO - Vauban

Mr. Mitch Scherr

CEO - Vauban

Speaker Bio

Mitch is a co-founding partner at Vauban and has successfully implemented internet strategies for companies for over 23 years. He is a market-driven CEO, having taken successful businesses from zero to exit. Mitch is named in two US Patents, and has spoken on cyber security in major media outlets, including Internet World, Business 2.0, The Wall Street Journal, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN

Lt. Col. Andrew J Clarke

Chief Operating Officer - Vauban Group

Lt. Col. Andrew J Clarke

Chief Operating Officer - Vauban Group

Speaker Bio

Andrew is a co-founder of Vauban Group. He is an internationally established specialist capability advisor with proven ability to deliver where immediate and enduring impact is required and understanding strategy, people and process is fundamental to delivering successful change, restructuring and capacity building programs.

With broad understanding of government and commercial defense and security markets Andrew has specific experience in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Middle East advising the highest levels of government on capability, resilience, emergency measures and preparedness.

He has led several large technical project deliveries and was the senior requirements executive overseeing the operational delivery of the UK Ministry of Defense’s migration to the Defense Internet. He has a Master’s degree in Information Technology and Management and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management.

Mr. Mohammed Serieh

Head of Enterprise Marketing - Vodafone Qatar

Mr. Mohammed Serieh

Head of Enterprise Marketing - Vodafone Qatar

Speaker Bio

Mohammed leads the Enterprise B2B marketing team at Vodafone Qatar putting the customers at the heart of the business. Mohammed is responsible for developing new business and commercial models with partners to build sustainable business grounds. Having worked in the telecommunication industry for 20 years and seen the industry successfully evolve from Netscape’s web to cloud computing, then into social media sphere, now Mohammed is passionate about continuing the journey through delivering Internet of Things (IoT) smart solutions which will mark a new era when machines are given a voice of their own.

Mr. Shams Hasan

Mr. Shams Hasan

Speaker Bio

Shams Hasan is the Infrastructure Solutions Manager for Dell EMC, covering Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META). He is responsible for business and technology thought-leadership, strategic programs, and product strategy in META. Shams works with key customer business leaders on their Digital transformation agendas aligned to business strategy. As both an engineer and a business person, he has 15+ years of experience in technology leadership and strategic roles. With a diverse background from startups to large enterprises, from profit to non-profit organizations, Shams brings a unique blend of customer insights, a passion for people and innovation, and a broad understanding of technology’s role in the business agenda. His interests focus on emerging technology and innovation accelerator trends, their impact and relevance to economic and consumer evolution, and the role of ‘digital’ in today’s business strategies. In his personal time, Shams is active as a mentor, speaker, and advisor in K-through-12 as well as higher-ed education; he is also a past TEDx speaker.

Mr. Dragan Petkovic

Security Leader for Turkey, Middle East and Africa - Oracle

Mr. Dragan Petkovic

Security Leader for Turkey, Middle East and Africa - Oracle

Speaker Bio

Dragan Petkovic joined Oracle 6 years ago with 20 year experience working for large multinationals as a Security Consultant, Product Manager and Security Sales Leader. He was involved in high profile security breaches investigations and security incident response throughout the region.

Areas of research interest include open standards for the exchange of Security Information, Cloud Security, advanced mathematical models and applied machine learning in processing security information.

Dragan holds Master of Electrical Engineering degree from University of Zagreb and various industry certifications including CISSP since 2003. Dragan gives lectures to various regional and European universities on subjects of Privacy, Security & Compliance.

Mr. Alaa Ajweh

Mr. Alaa Ajweh

Speaker Bio

Alaa Ajweh is the financial services account executive for Microsoft in Qatar and Oman. He helps his customers lead the way in digital transformation by leveraging Microsoft’s industry and technical expertise.

Mr. Andy Purdy

Chief Security Officer - Huawei Technologies USA

Mr. Andy Purdy

Chief Security Officer - Huawei Technologies USA

Speaker Bio

Andy is the Huawei global lead for the East-West Institute Global Cooperation in Cyberspace Initiative and serves as the Vice Chair of the Open Group Trusted Technology Forum, which developed the Open Trusted Technology Provider Standard (O-TTPS), recognized as ISO/IEC 20243.

Andy was the senior cyber security official of the U.S. Government from 2004-2006. Prior to joining the Department of Homeland Security, Andy was a member of the White House staff where he helped to draft the U.S. National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace (2003), after which he went to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where he helped to form and then led the National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)

Dr. Noora Fetais

Director - KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

Dr. Noora Fetais

Director - KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

Speaker Bio

Dr. Noora Fetais is the Director of KINDI Center for Computing Research at Qatar University (QU). She is also an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Qatar University. Her expertise is in Visualization for Cybersecurity. Dr. Fetais holds a PhD from the University of Sussex (UK). She is a member of the first batch of Qatar Leadership Center (Current and Future Leaders Program 2011-2013), and is currently joining the first batch of QLC Executive Master in Leadership, Policy and Innovation at Georgetown University. She is currently holding various professional positions including; Vice Chair of IEEE-Qatar Section, Qatar Ambassador of Women in Data Science (WiDS) at Stanford University, among others. Dr. Fetais is the first Women to chair the Faculty Senate of Qatar University, a member of Qatar-UK Alumni Networking, and a member of the Board of Advisors for Qatar Academy is part of the Qatar Foundation (QF) for Education, Science and Community Development.

At the national level, Dr. Fetais is invited as a speaker at the Qatar Fourth Information Security Conference for Financial Sector 2017 and 2018, and at the regional level; she has been invited by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) as a distinguished speaker at the Conference on Women Leaders in Science, Technology and Engineering. Moreover, at the international level, Dr. Fetais been invited to attend and present at the Science Collaboration Symposium on Cyber Security that held at the University of Manchester. She has participated as a distinguished speaker and presenter in a number of regional and international conferences and has published a number of research papers, also has led many research teams funded in the field of her specialization.

Dr. Fetais has been selected as one of 63 regional level finalists in the Study UK Regional Alumni Awards, one of nine finalists in the MENA region, and one of three finalists in MENA region for the Professional Achievement Award category in 2018. She was awarded the British scholarship (Chevening) and she is a member of different international professional associations such as ACM, IEEE, ASEE, and others. Dr. Noora also participated in organizing and chairing a number of sessions and panels at different conferences and workshops at the state level and participated in judging awards to some of these conferences and competitions at different levels.

Dr. Ahmed Bouridane

Dr. Ahmed Bouridane

Speaker Bio

Ahmed Bouridane received an "Ingenieur d'Etat" degree in electronics from "Ecole Nationale Polytechnique" of Algiers (ENPA), Algeria, in 1982,

an M.Phil. degree in electrical engineering (VLSI design for signal processing) from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, U.K., in 1988, and

an Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering (computer vision) from the University of Nottingham, U.K., in 1992. From 1992 to 1994, he worked as a Research Developer in telesurveillance and access control applications. In 1994, he joined Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, U.K., initially

as Lecturer in computer architecture and image processing and later on he was promoted to Reader in Computer Science. He is now a full Professor

in Image Engineering and Security and leads the Computer and Electronic Security Systems Group at Northumbria University at Newcastle (UK),

and his research interests are in imaging for forensics and security, biometrics, homeland security, image/video watermarking, cryptography,

steganography/steganalysis for secure communication and visual computing. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 publications and one research book on imaging for forensics and security.

Professor Bouridane is a Senior Member of IEEE

Dr. Gabriele Oligeri

KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

Dr. Gabriele Oligeri

KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

Speaker Bio

Gabriele Oligeri received his M.Sc. Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Pisa and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from the same university. He spent about 6 years at the Italian National Research Council, one year at the University of California (UCI), two years at the University of Trento (IT) and finally two years at University of Roma Tre (IT).

Dr. Abdulatif Shikfa

KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

Dr. Abdulatif Shikfa

KINDI Center for Computing Research, Qatar University

Speaker Bio

Dr. Abdullatif Shikfa, an assistant research professor at KINDI center for computing research of Qatar University. He obtained his PhD from Telecom ParisTech in 2010 and he is an alumnus of Ecole Polytechnique (MSc. 2004), of University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (MSc. 2005), and of ENST-EURECOM (MSc. 2006). Before joining Qatar University, Abdullatif held both research and industry positions: he served as research engineer at EURECOM, as scientific advisor and deputy head of the security research department at Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent and then he worked as technical project manager and security expert at Thales. His research interests and experience span a wide range of topics in information and communication security: he published over twenty peer-reviewed papers in international journals and conferences on various aspects of applied cryptography ranging from trust and cooperation enforcement to secure routing, through protection of users' privacy mainly by applying advanced cryptographic primitives to enable computation on encrypted data.

Dr. Savanid Vatanasakdakul

Speaker Bio

Dr. Savanid Vatanasakdakul holds a PhD in Information Systems from the University of New South Wales, where she received a prestigious Australian Postgraduate Scholarship Award (APA). Her research interests include IT risk management and governance, strategic fit and alignment in information technology transfer to Asia, and implications of national culture, governance aspects in technology utilisation among organisations. She has been appointed as the editorial board member of the Journal of Global Information Technology Management, and secretary and founding committee member of SIGGreen at the Association of Information Systems. She has worked as an IT consultant for Deloitte Touch prior to entering academia. Furthermore, she has experience in teaching the IT auditing course in Australia, Germany, Thailand and Qatar.

Dr. Daniel C. Phelps

Speaker Bio

Daniel C. Phelps is an Associate Teaching Professor and the Program Director for the Information Systems program at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. Previously, he was a Member of the Technical Staff and Information Scientist with CMU’s Software Engineering Institute/CERT both in Pittsburgh and in Qatar as well as a faculty member in the College of Information, Florida State University in Panama City, FL. His graduate work in Information Studies was done at Florida State University (Ph.D. 2005), in Computer Science at James Madison University (M.S. 2008), in Information Systems at the Naval Postgraduate School (PGCert 2010), and in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment at the University of Illinois at Chicago (M.Ed. 2017). He also holds an NSTISSI 4011 certificate as an Information Systems Security Professional, a CNSSI certificate as an Information Systems Security Officer, and is Certified by ISACA as a Certified Information Systems Auditor and by SANS as a GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst. At CMU-Q, he teaches courses related to information system development, networking, security, and auditing.

Dr. Phelps’ research interests center on socio-technical aspects of information system security and include control use in information systems, information system auditing, information security, and social and personality factors related to normative and non-normative system interactions. His research has examined factors associated with a systems administrator’s ability to secure information systems, IT control choice and implementation impact on organizations, insider threats subverting the security of their organization’s systems, and the actions of larger groups attacking an outside organization’s system.

Dr. Ting Yu

Acting research director of the cyber security group (QCRI) & Joint Professor in the College of Science and Engineering (HBKU)

Dr. Ting Yu

Acting research director of the cyber security group (QCRI) & Joint Professor in the College of Science and Engineering (HBKU)

Speaker Bio

Ting Yu is the acting research director of the cyber security group of Qatar Computer Research Institute (QCRI), and a joint Professor in the College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Before joining QCRI in 2013, he was an associate professor in the Computer Science Department, North Carolina State University. He obtained his BS from Peking University in 1997, MS from Minnesota University in 1998, and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003, all in computer science. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2007. His research areas focus on privacy preserving data analysis, data anonymization, and security analytics.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Dorani

Chair of Department of Information Technology - Community College of Qatar

Dr. Mohammed Al-Dorani

Chair of Department of Information Technology - Community College of Qatar

Speaker Bio

Dr. Al-Dorani graduated from the George Washington Graduate School of Business with particular emphasis on technology. The subject of his doctorate thesis was on developing a central information system database for the Six Gulf Countries. After Dr. Al-Dorani attained his Ph.D., he was appointed by his government of Qatar, to represent that nation at the Gulf Cooperation Council located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Dr. Al-Dorani served as "The Director of Computers, Post, Telegraph, and Telecommunication" for the Six Gulf Nations, remaining in his work there for eight years. While having a full-time job at the GCC, he taught senior courses at the Computer Science College at King Saud University in Riyadh. Also, he consulted at Sabic and Al-Yamama Publishing on computing and networking systems. He then left Qatar and became the Acting CEO for the Iridium project of the Middle East sector. The project was a multi-billion-dollar global effort, that was centered through the Motorola company and involved the participation of over one hundred nations.

Dr. Al-Dorani is Currently serving as the Chair of the Information Technology Department at the Community College of Qatar, where he oversees the first bachelor program on Cyber Security and Networking in Qatar. Dr. Al-Dorani has published his first book on cybersecurity titled "Cyber Danger & GCC Countries." The book is available on Amazon and also now working on his second book on Cyber Security published very soon. Currently, he is working on his second book on cybersecurity for publication in December 2018.

Mr. Nasser Lebbos

IT & security Director, Special Investigation Commission

Mr. Nasser Lebbos

IT & security Director, Special Investigation Commission

Speaker Bio

Nasser Joined the Special Investigation Commission in 2003 and has played a key role in the redesign, development commissioning and tuning of the IT systems and the information security in all its aspects.
His current responsibilities include the update of security policies to mitigate possible risks, the update and expansion and further integration of the existing software, workflow and EDM (Electronic Document Management) solutions to optimize the operations and provide better services.
He has been requested to present expertise on the security setups of FIUs and has lectured on IT, information security and data quality in local and international professional conferences.
Before joining the SIC, he worked in the private sector in Lebanon and Europe for international software solution companies where he headed many projects ranging from tailor made communication solution, archiving and retrieval projects, large secure database systems, manual entry of large paper-based sensitive information and security focused systems.
Nasser holds is an electrical engineer, graduating from ESIB (Université Saint Joseph, Beirut) in 1986, followed by multiple courses focused on IT and security in which he is a certified professional.
He is an active member of the Egmont IEWG, and the ITWG previously where he headed and collaborated in multiple projects for the Egmont group.

Dr. Mark Sirkin

CEO - Sirkin Advisors

Dr. Mark Sirkin

CEO - Sirkin Advisors

Speaker Bio

Mark Sirkin has been helping companies develop their human capital for over 30 years. He has worked with public corporations as well as large and small closely-held businesses – with a specialty in family businesses – start-ups, law firms and professional practices. He is an authority on maximizing human capital and human capital development in organizations. Working with senior management, Dr. Sirkin works across functions and regions in the U.S. and overseas. He has been a key resource to senior leadership on a range of issues from succession to acquisition integration, and from coaching individual key executives to building executive teams.

As both a business psychologist and former Founder and CEO of an information services company, he has experience both as a consultant and founding executive. He is known as a builder and leader of high performance teams delivering consultation and training to executives, managers, supervisors and professional staffs. He is an expert in the assessment, selection and coaching of C-level executives to improve performance and teamwork.

Over the past 30 years, he has had opportunities to work with a great variety of businesses, from publicly-held Fortune 50 companies to smaller businesses, to not-for-profits and large and small law firms. In 2004, he synthesized his many insights into a book: The Secret Life of Corporations (which is soon-to-be republished in its second edition). This book explored theories of organizational design and how leaders can create and maximize productive work environments. He believes attending to, and aligning, individual and corporate values are a key to enhancing and protecting information security in the financial sector.

Dr. Sirkin is currently the co-chair of the Family Business Interest Group of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Consulting Psychology and was a founder of the New York Family Business Study Group of the Family Firm Institute. His latest book is Regain Your Balance: At Work, With Family, In Life (2016), a book which summarizes his approach to executive coaching. He continues to write about the interface of people, talent, and organizations. In addition to his consulting work, Dr. Sirkin is an Associate Dean and teaches in the graduate programs of Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY.

Mr. Faisal Al Kuwari

CTO - Meeza

Mr. Faisal Al Kuwari

CTO - Meeza

Speaker Bio

As Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Faisal Al-Kuwari is an experienced and innovative CTO with a proven track record in creating technology designs that deliver strategically aligned results. He is able to deliver leading edge technology transformations from proof of concept to product realization through agile management practices. Mr. Al-Kuwari heads up the MEEZA service portfolio design and architecture teams driving service excellence for clients.

Mr. Al-Kuwari has over nineteen years experience in IT at leading Commercial and Government entities like the Ministry of Education and Qatar Gas. He later held multiple supervisory and management roles at KAHRAMAA in IT Operations and Systems Support until appointed Head of Networking and Telecoms. Before joining MEEZA in 2010, Mr. Al-Kuwari led the managed services product development at QTEL

Dr. Marc Derungs

Senior Vice President, Chief Product Owner Financial Services - SAP

Dr. Marc Derungs

Senior Vice President, Chief Product Owner Financial Services - SAP

Speaker Bio

As head of Financial Services Industries, reporting to Christoph Behrendt, head of Products & Innovation Industry Cloud, Marc is responsible for all development activities globally for the Financial Service industries to ensure sustainable success.

Most recently, Marc was head of Customer Officers driving strategic customer engagements in the Energy & Natural Resources sector. Previously, he was the core banking program lead for top tier charter banks and later he was head of the Industry Banking Unit where he gained deep knowledge and acquired an outstanding reputation in the financial services sector.

In 1997, Marc was an executive advisor in the Chairman of the Board’s office, working in both management and program management roles.

Marc studied information management at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland and holds a Ph.D in business administration. In addition, he completed SAP’s Strategic Management Program (SMP) and the renowned SAP Global Leadership Program at INSEAD, France.

Mr. Nick Vora

Speaker Bio

Nick Vora is the Regional Lead for the Enterprise Security Solutions & Processing in Middle East & Africa. Based in Dubai, Nick is responsible for leveraging MasterCard’s Network, Processing and Security products and services for all stakeholders, allowing them to create safe, simple and smart payment products and help them accelerate the adoption of electronic payments throughout the region.

Prior to his current role, Nick was responsible for setting up and running the Mastercard Processing Center in Dubai. He has also led the product development and market expansion efforts for the Mastercard US based payment processing platform, based at MasterCard’s headquarters in New York.

Nick brings in a wealth of experience in technology and product consulting for financial services, transportation and logistics. Prior to joining MasterCard in 2011, Nick was the Founder and Managing Partner of a boutique consultancy that specialized in implementing and expanding innovative payment solutions globally. Nick has also held the position of Director of International Account Development at Fidelity Information Systems (formerly known as WildCard Systems), where he helped create pioneering, open-network, prepaid solutions in multiple countries around the world.

Nick holds Executive Certification in General Management from the Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University and has also received a Master of Science in Management of Information Systems and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Miami, Coral Gables.

Mr. Neil Fernandes

Head of Risk Services - Visa, Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Mr. Neil Fernandes

Head of Risk Services - Visa, Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Speaker Bio

Current Position and Responsibilities

Neil Fernandes Visa’s Head of Risk Services for the Middle East and North Africa. He is responsible for Payment System Risk and works with banks, merchants, government, regulators, law enforcement agencies and other key stakeholders to ensure the payments ecosystem remains secure and cardholders, banks and merchants alike benefit from the advantages of electronic payments.

Other Information

Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Neil has over 20 years of experience in fraud and risk management across multiple markets.
During his career, he has managed a myriad of functions such as fraud vigilance, credit underwriting, fraud detection, risk analytics, authorizations and acquiring risk across all retail banking products.

Mr. James Cohen

Chief Technologist, Hybrid IT, HPE Pointnext - HPE

Mr. James Cohen

Chief Technologist, Hybrid IT, HPE Pointnext - HPE

Speaker Bio

– James has been working in the IT industry for more than 40 years

– Joined HPE in the UK in 1997 and moved to worldwide in 2011 to develop infrastructure solutions, initially platform transformation, and then Software Defined Infrastructure, before focusing on Blockchain since the end of 2016

– Degree in the Mathematics and Computer Science from Brunel University

– Served in the Royal Naval Reserve for 38 years finishing as the Navy’s first SO1 Cyber Warfare

– He is currently Chief Technologist, Hybrid IT

Mr. Stephen Bailey

Head of Privacy, NCC Group’s Risk Management and Governance Practice

Mr. Stephen Bailey

Head of Privacy, NCC Group’s Risk Management and Governance Practice

Speaker Bio

Stephen is the cyber consulting lead at NCC Group and has worked extensively across the Middle East. He specialises in the people risk aspects of cyber security and was one of the authors of the UK Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure’s guidance on managing employee risk.

Mr. Scott Manson

Cyber Security Leader for Middle East, Africa and Turkey - Cisco

Speaker Bio

Scott’s primary focus is to enhance Cisco’s Security Architecture business by helping customers defend themselves before, during and after security incidents. Scott’s responsibilities include driving security product and services sales, marketing, thought leadership and forging strong partnerships with Cisco’s channel partners and System Integrators. A key focus is aligning Cisco’s security organisation to capitalise on the company’s breadth of capability and credibility to address security as a fully integrated architecture, enabling Cisco’s customers to go faster and capture the opportunity of key market trends like digitisation.

Scott joined Cisco in September 2010 as Regional Manager for Emerging Markets taking Cisco’s Secure Next generation Data Center and Cloud Computing offerings in to the Middle East, Africa and Russian markets.
Over the last two year’s Scott led a team of sales specialists and consulting engineers to take the same innovative solutions and go-to-market structure that worked in Data Center for customers, across Cisco’s adjacent portfolios in Networking and Collaboration.

Scott has over 19 years of experience in Information Technology sales and consulting. His technology background includes Data Center Infrastructure, Security and Management, Middleware and Application technologies.

He is ITIL certified and versed in the principles of Business Service Management (BSM).

Mr. Clinton Firth

Partner and AIM Cyber Leader (Africa, India and Middle east) - EY

Mr. Clinton Firth

Partner and AIM Cyber Leader (Africa, India and Middle east) - EY

Speaker Bio

Clinton Firth is a global thought leader in Cybersecurity and is the Partner for EY Cybersecurity across Africa, India and Middle East. Clinton brings clients a unique business perspective as an experienced Cybersecurity executive with successful senior roles including consulting, managed security operations, threat intelligence and solution design. This is complemented with diversified experience and background that has spanned commercial, government and Defense clients. Clinton’s unique experience has helped many customers with Cybersecurity issues ranging from board level, strategy, and managed services to consultative threat intelligence. Meanwhile all conducted in a pragmatic, solution orientated approach and delivery relevant to the client’s business.

Mr. Brandon Hart

CTO - Encryptics

Mr. Brandon Hart

CTO - Encryptics

Speaker Bio

Brandon Hart joined Encryptics in 2007 as Director of Software Development and he was quickly promoted to Vice President & CTO.
He previously was Senior Vice President of Operations for QBOS, Inc. an enterprise software company that provides a software-as-a-service (SAAS) model to network marketing companies. He led day-to-day operations for the company's development and programming division, and he oversaw new client implementation and customer support.

Earlier, Brandon was Executive Vice President of Operations for WNBS Consulting Group where he provided operational support for four division presidents. He also supervised the development and management of the operational software that managed all aspects of the company's business.
He began his technical and management career with Lucent Technologies, where he assumed increasingly responsible positions during six years with the global telecommunications technology leader. He started as field broadband technician before being promoted to Field Readiness Specialist and assistant to the Director of Operations for the Broadband Division.

Brandon earned his bachelor of science degree from Everglades University. He also holds technical certifications in telecom equipment and software.

Mr. Mustapha Huneyd Bengali

Speaker Bio

Mr. Huneyd currently heads the Corporate Information Security unit at Ooredoo Qatar, reporting to its CEO. He has over 16 years of information security experience. Prior to this, he jointly established the Information Security section and later the Business Continuity Management department at Etisalat in the UAE. In those positions, he played a key role in creating a risk-based Information Security Management framework and led the implementation of effective security controls.

As a previous member of the ISACA UAE Chapter, he has been instrumental in enhancing awareness among UAE ISACA members while leading the CPE event program and organizing the ISACA UAE ISAFE Conference.

He holds numerous industry-recognized certifications including CISSP, CISM, CISA, CRISC, AMBCI, BCCE and CWNA, in addition to being a certified Lead Auditor for the ISO 22301 & ISO 27001 standards.

Mr. Mirza Asrar Baig

CEO - CTM360

Mr. Mirza Asrar Baig

CEO - CTM360

Speaker Bio

Mr. Mirza Asrar Baig is a serial entrepreneur and visionary business-builder who is the founder and CEO of CTM360, a Cyber Threat Management company (Bahrain), and IT Matrix, an Information Security company (Saudi Arabia).

Mr. Mirza is a Computer Science graduate from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM - Dhahran, Saudi Arabia). With a passion for GCC-based research and innovation, he has been serving the Information Security / Cybersecurity requirements of the GCC Financial Sector for over 20 years. During this time, he has also contributed to the region via numerous speaking events providing insight on current and emerging threats specific to GCC based organizations.
In 2006, Mirza initiated the PCI compliance program for the Saudi Financial sector that eventually resulted with every acquirer in Saudi being PCI-certified by end of 2011. Furthermore, with his vision of a Cyber Threat Management center in GCC, he has initiated multiple R&D initiatives and regional collaboration efforts that have resulted in a spin-off, CTM360, based out of Bahrain.

Team CTM360 has developed a comprehensive Cyber Threat Management offering that currently services 25 of the top 50 GCC banks as well as a host of other marquee names. CTM360 has managed in excess of 60,000 unique cyber incidents though a cloud-based, subscription platform, backed by a dedicated 24 x 7 x 365 team. In addition to the banking and financial industry, CTM360 caters to multiple sectors, including aviation, oil & gas, conglomerates, government bodies, healthcare and SWFs.

Mr. Toney Jennings

CEO - Encryptics

Mr. Toney Jennings

CEO - Encryptics

Speaker Bio

Toney is a cybersecurity pioneer that has been leading teams in the cybersecurity and information technology fields for over 25 years. Toney is currently the CEO of Encryptics Holdings, Inc., a global company that is the leader in end-to-end rights-managed data encryption and protection. He is also Chairman of SignaCert,Inc., having purchased the IP and assets of SignaCert from Harris Corporation at the beginning of 2013. SignaCert delivers comprehensive and affordable compliance verification and continuous monitoring solutions to both enterprise and government customers. Toney came to SignaCert from CoreTrace Corporation, an Application Whitelisting pioneer that was sold to Lumension Security in November of 2013. Prior to CoreTrace, Toney was president and CEO of Mirage Networks (acquired by TrustWave).

Under Toney's leadership, Mirage Networks became a recognized leader in network access control with hundreds of customers and thousands of units sold. Prior to Mirage Networks, Toney was a founder, CEO, and Chairman of WheelGroup Corporation, the creators of the first commercially available intrusion detection system, delivered through its successful sale to Cisco Systems. Earlier in his career, Toney led teams at Trident Data Systems and as an officer at the Air Force Information Warfare Center (AFIWC), conducting penetration testing and vulnerability assessments of operational Department of Defense (DoD) networks.

Mr. Nizar El Farra

Technical Services - CommVault

Mr. Nizar El Farra

Technical Services - CommVault

Speaker Bio

Nizar ElFarra works as a CommVault's Technical Services Consultant.. He has extensive regional experience in both the US and EMEA, and has worked for large IT vendors across these geographies, including Symantec, Sun, Nortel, NetApp, and EMC. During his long IT career spanning over twenty years, he has held various positions in software engineering, technical marketing, product management and technical services

Mr. Richard Moulds

General Manager of Whitewood Security

Mr. Richard Moulds

General Manager of Whitewood Security

Speaker Bio

Richard Moulds is the General Manager of Whitewood Security and has over 20 years of experience in the security industry including executive positions at market leaders such as Thales and nCipher. Richard is a thought leader on encryption, cryptography and key management. He has worked with customers in the areas of Internet security, credit card processing and mobile payments, PKI, storage encryption, hardware security modules and enterprise key management. Richard has participated in multiple standards bodies including PCI DSS, OASIS, CSA, OWASP and Quantum Safe industry groups and is the author of Key Management for Dummies. He has contributed to many security publications and podcasts and is a frequent speaker at industry events.

John provides technical and strategic guidance to large global enterprises, blue chip organisations and government agencies on how stay protected and prevent damage from today’s sophisticated and destructive attackers.

Mr. Amir Akhtar

North Gulf Territory Manager - Veeam Software

Mr. Amir Akhtar

North Gulf Territory Manager - Veeam Software

Speaker Bio

A seasoned sales professional with over 12 years’ experience, Amir joined Veeam in March 2015, as the Territory Manager for North Gulf which includes Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. Working closely with the internal team, Amir is responsible for growing Veeam’s revenue in his region by building and managing enterprise level relationships with strategic accounts. In just one year, Amir has already exceeded expectations and his targets; revenue from his territory grew by 57% YOY, a major driver was enterprise sales which grew by 62%. His performance earned him an invitation in to Veeam’s President’s Club, a prestigious accolade awarded to the highest achievers against yearly quota.

Prior to joining Veeam, Amir spent five years as Head of Services MEA at ARROW ECS Distribution, one of the leading IT Value Added Distributions in the UAE. Managing fourteen consultants across the region, Amir had full management responsibility of the service business unit and among his many achievements spearheaded the service offerings that earned his team the reputation as the #1 choice for all company portfolio vendor related services within the channel. Prior to ARROW, Amir honed his skills as a Sales Account Manager at Morpheus IT and Equanet.

When he is not travelling for work, a keen Golf enthusiast, Amir can be found on one of Dubai’s many golf courses. He is also a passionate Formula One fan though his priority now is his young family.

Mr. Nezar Nassr

Product Manager, Financial Crime Solutions - EastNets

Mr. Nezar Nassr

Product Manager, Financial Crime Solutions - EastNets

Speaker Bio

Mr. Nassr holds the position of Product Manager for Financial Crime solutions at EastNets. Nezar has a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering, a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence and a PhD in information security from the university of KU Leuven in Belgium.

Mr. Nassr brings 15 years of different experiences in the financial industry; starting with software development, and progressing to software integration and SWIFT consultancy, providing consultancy services to over 100 banks worldwide. Mr. Nassr is a researcher and member of the Computer Security at the DISTRINET research group in KU Leuven.

Mr. Mo Cashman

Director, Solution Architects and Principle Engineer - McAfee

Mr. Mo Cashman

Director, Solution Architects and Principle Engineer - McAfee

Speaker Bio

Mo Cashman is one of McAfee’s passionate leaders in cyber security. As a Principle Engineer and at McAfee, Mo inspires our next generation security professionals, helps drive company technical strategy and advises our largest global customers on cyber security strategy and business resilience. Mo’s passion is to change the way we think about, measure and operate security systems. With that passion and over 20 years of experience, Mo leads our global solution architect program as well as development efforts in security effectiveness testing, value measurement, and integrated security system design. In previous roles at McAfee, Mo was the Chief Security Officer for the Global Public Sector and just prior to joining the company, lead a large Computer Security Incident Response Team detecting and investigating sophisticated cyber threats across the world.

Ms. Ruchi Kapoor

Head of Training - Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

Ms. Ruchi Kapoor

Head of Training - Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy

Speaker Bio

HR, Management & Leadership development professional with vast experience in Talent Management and development. An Executive Coach with over 15 years, rich and diverse experience working with local and multinational organisations, with expertise in the design, development, implementation, and management of a variety of value-added programs including Organisation Culture, Employee Engagement, Management & Leadership Development Programmes at all levels impacting Performance Enhancement & Capability Building.
Ruchi has extensive experience working with senior leadership, line managers, employees, and external stakeholders to set the strategic direction, develop Talent Management Strategy and guide the design, implementation, and ongoing evaluation of organization-wide Talent Performance systems, programs and tools to maximizing group and individual Performance that links with business objectives.

Ruchi has expertise in Stress management and well-being using several ancient tools and techniques in an organisational context. Ruchi has rolled out Stress management programme in her organisation.

Mr. Andrew Clarke

Mr. Andrew Clarke

Speaker Bio

Andrew Clarke, an industry veteran in the security industry, serves as Head of Strategic Alliances & Channel Partnerships, EMEA at One Identity, focusing on the provision of a portfolio of security solutions that includes One Identity Manager – a comprehensive solution that streamlines the access governance process of managing user identities, privileges and security enterprise-wide and TPAM – a Total Privileged Account Management solution – that provides individual accountability and visibility into the actions and behaviours of privileged users across an infrastructure.

In this role, he is responsible for driving sales and marketing activities with strategic alliances & channels throughout the EMEA region and ensuring that customers are provided with premium consulting services for them to maximise their use of the products. Previously, Clarke served as Vice President & Managing Director, EMEA at e-DMZ Security, which was acquired by Quest Software.

Mr. Jose Varghese

CO-FOUNDER, EVP & HEAD – CYBERACTIVE? SERVICES - Paladion

Mr. Jose Varghese

CO-FOUNDER, EVP & HEAD – CYBERACTIVE? SERVICES - Paladion

Speaker Bio

Jose, a B-tech in Applied Electronics is a strategic leader whose information security expertise spans more than 20 years; with a passion for Information Security, research and innovation, he co-founded Paladion in 2000, an award winning & leading High Cyber Defence Company, prior to which he started of his IT career with working @ Wipro for 5 years.

Under his entrepreneurship and strategic guidance, Paladion set-up its first Security Operations center (SOC) in India in 2006 and as on date Paladion is recognized as a Representative Vendor in Gartner’s 2017 Market Guide for Managed Detection and Response. Jose leads a highly skilled 500 cyber security experts to deliver Paladion’s vision of high speed cyber defence to their 150+ clients’ across 20 countries.

A well known name in the SANS training circuit as an instructor for GSEC & GCIH during initial days, Jose is an accomplished speaker & regular presenter at seminars and conferences on Info and Cyber Security across the globe including RSA Conference in USA and Singapore

Mr. Gaby Abi Aad

Software Sales Area Leader - NCR

Mr. Gaby Abi Aad

Software Sales Area Leader - NCR

Speaker Bio

Gaby Abi Aad leads the software business of NCR for the Gulf area. Gaby has a thorough understanding of the banking industry, and in particular digital transformation trends. Gaby’s career spans 15 years of IT related business development, sales transformation and 2 years consulting in the digital marketing and web analytics fields. Gaby has given presentations to students of Zayed University on Human Computer Interaction, he has moderated panels on digital marketing, and was a panelist in a forum on information architecture. Gaby has published several articles on NCR’s public blog and other websites such as Wamda.com. Gaby’s interests mainly span customer experience, omnichannel and digital transformation.